Najib Urges Malaysian Students To Be Multilingual To Be Globally Competitive

SANDAKAN (Sabah, Malaysia), April 21 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Najib Razak today urged Malaysian students to be multilingual so as to be globally competitive. He said profiency in widely used languages like English and Mandarin would give them an added advantage in the international marketplace. "As such, I encourage all Malaysian students to have multingual ability right from the school level so that this will serve them well when they enter job market or decide to go into business," he said when performing the ground breaking ceremony for Yu Yuan Secondary School's multipurpose hall here on Saturday. Najib said that he was not only stating this but one of his children who is studying at a university in the United States, chose to study Mandarin as a modern language to improve multilingual capability. He said the university stipulated that its students must be proficient in one additional modern language in order to graduate. "For four years he has to study Mandarin and on completion, I will send him to work in Beijing so that he can further improve his Mandarin skills. "Last year, during the summer holidays I sent him to Beijing to study Mandarin for a month at Beijing's Foreign Studies University," he said, adding that another of his children was studying Arabic. Najib said this way, Malaysians could succeed on the global level wherever they were. At the function, Najib brought good news for the school's board when he announced that the federal government would chip in RM1 million (US$326,211.06) for the hall which costs RM5 million (US$1,631,055.28) overall. Yu Yuan Secondary School, which was opened in 1962 is among the oldest schools in the country and currently has an enrolment of 1,023 students. The prime minister also praised the school for consistent outstanding performance as the pass rate in the Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR) and Malaysia Certificate of Education(SPM) was from 95 to 100 per cent each year. Besides this two national examinations, the school also offers the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) which is needed to pursue higher studies in Mandarin. -- BERNAMA